6/23/98 ~ Days Off in Manchester

After the Vienna show, I had an early morning flight to Manchester, which eventually got going after a delay of an hour, a ride around the tarmac in a bus then back to the terminal for another fifteen minute wait! After arriving in Manchester I went down to Crimson Studios to see my friends Andy MacKenzie and Mike Bonwick, and to do some work on a gypsy jazz track that we had cut before the last cancelled Manchester show. I spent the afternoon listening to 6 takes of the song ("Kensington Swing") and choosing the best parts of each take for editing later. Andy invited me to join them on their gig for the evening, in the beautiful resort town of Harrowgate, where they were playing with violinist Chris Hayward for a company party. We had a ball playing together, and the audience really listened and appreciated the music a lot, even though it was just supposed to be background dinner music. I spent the next day in the studio again, learning how to edit audio on the computer, using the Cubase system. It took some doing, but I got a handle on it and got a good deal of work done on the song. It was especially difficult as I was cutting and pasting 7 tracks of audio at a time, and having to make sure they all lined up tempo-wise and made good musical sense with smooth transitions that were undetectable once done. Upon returning from dinner, Andy and I came across a guy beating a girl's head against a wall in the driveway of the alley behind the studio. We jumped out of the car and scared away the guy, who had made the girl almost frightened to the point of incoherence, as well as putting a big bump on the back of her head. She was too scared to get in our car, and as we tried to figure out where we could safely take her, the guy came back and started hassling her, and then us. A tussle started, but between Andy and I we subdued the guy and sent him off. As Andy was ringing the police on the cell phone, a police van drove by which we flagged down and sent after the attacker, who was only halfway down the street at this time. They picked him up, and the incident was over. We tried to go back and finish the editing, but as you can imagine were pretty shaken up by the whole incident. The next day was spent finishing the editing, and taking an incredibly beautiful drive to Portmerion, North Wales, where we were going to play for the wedding reception of a friend of Chris, the violinist. I had heard about Portmerion, which is an Italianate village built by an eccentric millionaire on the coast of North Wales. A very beautiful place, made famous on British TV as the location of the cult series "The Prisoner" in the 60's. We again had a great time jamming and playing jazz, and were joined by an exceptional young pianist from Bangor. All in all, a great evening. My last day in England was spent in Liverpool, attending the Penny Lane Festival. Ralph Ellis (former Liverpool native and lead guitarist in the 60's band the Swinging Blue Jeans) picked me up and drove me up to Liverpool, where we both enjoyed the music of many bands, the Merseybeat Sound show hosted by Harry Prytherich, and the stalls of Beatle memorabilia. I met a guy who has a business selling custom made Beatle boots, and was ready to buy a pair when Ralph informed me that he had already paid for them as a present for me! I find myself constantly thanking my lucky stars for having such great friends. After the show was over Ralph took me to the airport, where I caught a flight over to Copenhagen for the next day's show. I wonder how everyone else's time off went...
 
 

After my busy "days off", I ended up just staying in and resting up for the show in Copenhagen. I was looking forward to seeing the guys, as it had been 5 days since our last show! I gave Fergy and Rick Salazar some goodies that I had gotten for them at the Penny Lane Festival, and spent a bit of time decorating my Noel Galagher Epiphone Supernova with some Beatles cartoon stickers I had gotten at the Festival. I was also able to pick up some self-defense tips from EJ's security guard Alex Mordine when I told him of the activities in Manchester. He is truly a master of peaceful self-defense. The crowd was filling up the big stadium, and looked like one of our biggest crowds ever. When we started playing, it was obvious that this crowd was here to party! In front of me were some of the most friendly, supportive audience members ever. They were applauding me and Davey when we would venture out to do our solos, and the extra support encouraged us to entertain to our limits. One guy even threw his umbrella onstage! The weather was cooporating beautifully, and the rain let up for the whole show, allowing the crowd to rock out in the evening's cool breeze. It stayed light almost the whole show, as it was the day after the longest day of the year. That does tend to hamper the light show, but it makes it nice to be able to see the faces of the audience for most of the show. We played almost three hours, and kept every song on the list in the show. Elton was in a playful mood, and came over to me during the beginning of "Simple Life" and started tickling me just before I started to play my part! I could tell he was up to something - he gets a glint in his eye just before he does something like that, and honestly I enjoy it when he feels comfortable enough with the show to goof around a little bit. After the show I had a fun visit in the hotel bar with Elton's lawyer Frank, who is a very nice and funny man. We chatted about the upcoming plans, and got into some major joke telling with Davey and a group of his friends from Denmark. Tomorrow I will go a day earlier than the rest of the band to Helsinki, where I get to visit with my friends in the Finnish surf music band, "Laika and the Cosmonauts", a great band and fun bunch of guys. Cheers
 

I left Copenhagen one day earlier than the others so that I could spend some more time with my Finnish friends from the band "Laika and the Cosmonauts". When I arrived at my hotel, Matti Pitsinki (keyboard and guitar player) met me and took me out to lunch for some Indian food, where we were met by the band's other guitarist, Mikko Lankinen. After lunch we went over to Janne Haavisto's (Laika's drummer) house for some coffee and desert. Then the three of them took me on a tour of Helsinki, showing me the sights and giving me some background and history of the archtecture and politics of the city. We stopped by their studio, Hitsville, where their bassist Tom Nyman was engineering for a band called Lemonator. Then we checked out Finnvox studios, the Finnish "Abbey Road", where all of Laika and the Cosmonauts CDs have been mastered, and lots of other classic music has been recorded. We ended up at a Greek restaurant and had a great meal. A great first day in Helsinki! The next day was beautiful weather-wise - sunny, with big white fluffy clouds in the sky. Janne had invited me to his family's summer home in the country about 20 minutes outside the city. The Finnish countryside is quite picturesque - very green and clean feeling. Janne's family home was on a lake which we all jumped in after sitting in the "smoke sauna", a very special traditional Finnish sauna that uses a wood burning fire to heat up rocks for the sauna. The dip into the cool (cold, actually!) lake after sweating in the sauna for awhile was very exhilarating, and the water in the lake was also very clean feeling, as there are no motor boats or dumping of waste allowed on the lake. After the sauna, Janne cooked some delicious Thai food for us, as we listened to some old 78 records on the "hi-fi". Janne had heard about a group called the Django Quartet that was playing in town that evening, so we went along and heard some very nice jazz from them. Another awesome day in Helsinki - I felt so welcomed and looked after by the hospitality of my friends here. Again, I am thankful for the wonderful friends I have made around the world. The following day was show day, and as Clive had been hearing some things in our performance that needed tightening up, we had a full rehearsal/soundcheck in the afternoon. The weather was looking ominous before the show, but the rain held off for most of the peformance. The stadium was almost full, and the audience was very polite at first, but got more into it as the show went on. At one point early on, the crowd was doing "the wave" all around the stadium, and very well, too! Even though Elton had had a bit of a rough day with the press hounding him earlier, he was in great spirits and put on a great show. He was joking around with some of the cow-patterned "tie downs" from my guitar trunk, and we all got a good laugh from it while waiting offstage to start the show. The Finnish fans really got partying later in the set, and rushed the stage for the last third of the show. Just before the encores it started raining quite hard, but the enthusiasm of the Fins was not diminished. Many of the band members commented that they found the people here in Helsinki to be very nice and friendly, and I for one agree totally - I couldn't have had a better time.

The day following the Helsinki show was mostly taken up by traveling to Gothenberg, but I did get a chance to have lunch with Matti, Mikko and Janne before leaving for the airport. We arrived in Gothenberg at around dinnertime, but I ended up staying in my room to take care of a few problems at home. One of the difficult things about being so far from home is taking care of business problems with the time difference, which from Sweden to California is 10 hours! After I got things sorted out near midnight, I took a walk outside. The hotel was located on a busy street that was literally heaving with people at sidewalk cafes, waiting in lines to get into clubs and bars, and just walking down the streets. It had a feeling like Palm Springs or Ft. Lauderdale during Spring Break, with tons of young people partying. The next day there were brass bands marching up and down the street, one even playing the theme to "Hogan's Heroes"! I thought it might be some special holiday, but found out that it was just a normal Summer weekend in Gothenberg. I had an interview for a Swedish guitar magazine called "Fuzz" with Michael Linderoth, who had travelled from Stockholm for the interview. I was suprised at his knowledge of the Hellecaster's music, and he had already read my "Reports from the Road" so his questions were well informed, and I didn't have to spend a lot of time answering questions that I have answered many times before. Whenever Elton is staying in the same hotel as us (which is rare) , lots of fans seem to always know he is there, and are around the lobby and entrance to the hotel with CDs and photos to get signed. I met a few and was happy to sign their CDs for them - I often see different packaging of the discs than the ones I am familiar with, and that is always interesting to see. As show time came around, the weather turned really cloudy and started to rain. I felt bad for the audience, as the rain continued throughout most of the show. It didn't seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd though, and young and old rocked their socks off. Normally, it's only younger people who make their way to the front to stand and dance, but last night there were quite a few white and grey-haired folks rocking out right with the kids! The rain did let up a little by the end of the show, giving the wet crowd a little relief. Seeing the crowd have such a good time is what makes the difficult parts of constant traveling worth it. After nearly six weeks in Europe - following 4 weeks in the U.S. - following six weeks in Australia & Japan -following 4 more weeks in the U.S. in 1998, not to mention the TV shows in September, the 7 week U.S. tour, the 2 week Hellecaster UK tour and the two week EJ UK tour in 1997...it's no wonder that I am starting to feel a little road weary! Add a few guitar clinics, interviews, photo sessions, starting the Pharoah Records Co., writing, recording, editing and mixing "Crop Circles", writing my Road Reports and preparing the photos for them, answering the daily rash of emails, and trying to keep up with my family and friends, I wonder myself how I have done it! I guess that's why I am bemused when people tell me that they are bored - I barely even have enough time to keep up with all the things that I have got going now, much less get into all the other things that interest me. I can tell that we are getting close to the end of the tour, as everyone is pretty anxious to get home to their families. We have one more show in Zurich, then I will go to Baden Baden to film the "Ohne Filter" show with the Hellecasters... then a break!
 

To get to Zurich from Gothenberg, we had to connect in Copenhagen with a layover, so most of the "day off" was spent traveling. We got into our hotel in the early evening, and I for one mostly stayed in my room and rested, spending some time over in Guy's room doing some mixing. We are nearly finished with the whole CD now, and have started to think about the order that we want the songs to come in on the disc. Our hotel is a very nice, old and famous hotel overlooking the river, and is surrounded by forests full of walking paths. The hotel grounds are immaculately kept and have lots of beautiful flowers in bloom everywhere you look. The day after we arrived was a true day off, and some of us went into town, others biked around the trails. I stayed in mostly, resting up for the end of this tour which will be physically quite taxing for me, and getting caught up on business emails. Later in the day I did take a trip down into town with John Mahon. There are brightly painted plastic cows all over the place, and we couldn't resist taking a photo with one. In the evening we had a little listening party, and played some of our tracks for some friends. It was fun to see them listening in amazement that we did the whole project in hotel rooms, and it sounds so great! It is fun for us to start being able to just listen as a casual listener, not so closely as when we are making decisions and judgement calls about balance, effects, etc., which is how we have been listening up to this point. On show day Davey and I had an interview with Stephan Heimbecher for his magazine "Hercules", the European Elton John fan publication. He asked us all about the new CD, plus about our various other solo and group projects, and about what the future holds for us both with Elton and apart from Elton. The weather was so nice that we started to get suspicious, like it would get all used up before showtime, but the Zurich fans were lucky and had probably the best weather of the entire tour! Elton was in really good form, and the sound onstage was very clear, making it easy and fun to perform. The crowd itself was "festival style", with no seats on the floor section. This type of setup always makes for a more rockin' show, because people are already standing and don't worry about blocking someone's view behind them if they want to dance and get into the music. During the encores, two girls in the front of Elton got up on their boyfriends shoulders and took their tops off! They had painted an "E" on their right breasts and a "J" on their left ones, spelling out "EJ" on their naked breasts for the band! We all got a big kick out of that, and the crowd got a laugh from our reactions. I would love to have seen the looks on our faces! With tomorrow night's show in Paris being the last of this leg, I can really feel the tour winding down quickly. I will have to savor each note tomorrow, as I won't be hearing them for over a month...
 

After Zurich's show we spent the next day traveling to Paris for the last show of this tour leg. By some sort of mixup, I was left behind at the airport in Paris! I came out of the terminal to see a van pulling away, and had a sinking feeling that it was the rest of the guys in the van that I was supposed to be in. Using my somewhat limited command of the French language, I found out from a cab driver there that it indeed was the rest of my party that had left in that van, so I hired him to take me into Paris to the hotel. It turned out to be just a simple mistake, and our band assistant Tim was very apologetic when we all met the hotel. I actually arrived first, as they had circled around to find me at the airport once it was realised that I was missing! I'm actually suprised that this sort of thing hadn't happened before on a tour of this size. Things have run remarkably smoothly, a testament to our great crew and staff. As we didn't arrive at our hotel until late afternoon, we just had enough time to check into our rooms before it was time to head to the venue for the show. There was a lot of traffic around the venue, and due to some wrong directions we found ourselves driving around in the underground parking lot, unable to find the backstage entrance - very "Spinal Tap". As this was to be the last show of this European leg, there were a few goodbyes to be said. Alex Mordine, one EJ's security guards won't be with us for the U.S. leg (due to firearm codes, different security guards are hired in the U.S.), so I said goodbye to him, and also to Elton's lawyer, Frank Presland who has been out for quite a lot of the European shows, helping with the legalities involved with Billy Joel cancelling out of the tour. It feels a little like the last day at Summer Camp when a tour leg winds down. The Paris show is the first indoor show we've played in a while, and was very hot! The seating was again "festival style" and the crowd down front was simply amazing - very friendly and really into the music. I went through a record number of picks throwing them to the crowd, and somebody even asked (begged!) for me to throw them my towel that I used to dry off my face and hands during the show! The added excitement of having a "container" for the energy made for a killer last show for all of us. Elton rocked and rolled, as did the band and the crowd as well. I think that the French may love Elton as much as the Americans do - they were easily the most demonstrative crowd in Europe, and I for one had a great time playing for them. After the show we all went back to the hotel, and I had a visit from my friend Romane and his wife Laura, who had been my guests at the show. Romane is a great gipsy-jazz guitarist from Paris, and we've had the chance to play together in Nashville at the Chet Atkins convention, and in Paris, too. He informed me that he would be in San Francisco around the same time as Davey's and my appearance at the Acoustic Guitar magazine's festival, so we might have another opportunity to jam coming up. When Romane and Laura left, I went up to Guy's room for a final "listening party" to check out the sequence of the songs that we had chosen for the "Crop Circles" CD. We all agreed that the order worked well, and congratulated each other on a job extremely well done. It's a very satisfying feeling to have written, arranged, recorded, edited and mixed a whole CD's worth of music done by just Davey, Guy and myself - all while on tour! After the listening party, it was time to pack up my bags and get a couple hours of sleep before catching a very early flight to Straussbourg to drive to Baden Baden for the Hellecaster's appearance on the Ohne Filter TV show. Sleep is becoming a luxury, not a given at this point!

The Hellecasters' Ohne Filter Appearance

7/3/98 - Baden Baden, Germany

Although everyone else was finished after the Paris show, I had one more performance to do before heading back home. The Hellecasters had been invited to do a return engagement on Ohne Filter, a German TV show that we had been guests on a few years ago. I started my day at 5:30 am to get showered and packed up to catch a cab to the airport in Paris at 6:15 to make an 8:00 flight to Straussbourg. Straussbourg is about 60 kms from Baden Baden, and I was driven by Kai Hahn's company, who drives for Elton whenever he is in Germany. This trip was a gift from Kai, and really helped me out, as I was supposed to be at the TV studio at 10 am to set up the gear and soundcheck. Kai's drivers are incredibly well trained, and can drive very fast safely, so even though the plane was delayed coming in to Straussbourg, I still made it to the studio in time to soundcheck. Due to luggage restrictions, I had asked our manager Jim Cowan to bring a guitar and a pedalboard for me from home. During the Paris show I recieved a message that his suitcase (containing my pedaLboard) had gone missing and that I better bring some spare pedals just in case it didn't turn up. So in the middle of his regular chores during the Paris show, Fergy rounded up a spare set of pedals, cables and power supplies! This added to my already overweight luggage, but I got lucky and had a nice airline employee who didn't charge me for the excess. During the setup time I created a makeshift pedalboard from an old board and some duct tape - the most important component of the stage hand's tool kit! It was really nice to see Hellecaster members Steve Duncan, John Davis, Jerry Donahue, Will Ray and manager Jim, as I hadn't seen them for quite awhile. We also had the needed support of our soundman and road manager Scott Olson, who came out of "road retirement" especially for this trip. As we hadn't played together since December's UK tour, we took advantage of the time alloted us to soundcheck and ran through nearly all the songs we were planning to play on the show. I felt especially rusty on the newer material, and we all definitely needed the run-through. I had really enjoyed meeting the show's producer, Michael Au last time we did the show, and I was looking forward to seeing him again. The schedule of the rehearsals and filming gave us a couple opportunities to sit down and chat, and I also got to meet the host of the show, Gurd, who shared a passion with me for early swing, rockabilly and roots country. The format of the show is really like a live club performance, with two acts taped in an evening. The other act on the show was one of my favorite bands, The Corrs from Ireland. They play a mix of pop music and traditional Irish music, and I have really enjoyed their last two CDs. I watched their soundcheck and took a few photos of them at work. That's one of the best perks of this job - getting to see other musicians that I like while working! After all the soundchecks were done, we did some interviews. One was with Heinz Rebellius from Guitar and Bass magazine, and one with Hansi from Soundcheck magazine. I enjoyed speaking with both of them, and appreciate the distance that they both came to help spread the word about the band. When the interviews were done I took a few moments to practice a few of the tougher bits that I had messed up during soundcheck, and to relax a bit. The Corrs performed first, and I went into the studio to watch their set. They played and sang really well, and I especially liked the more traditional numbers with the violin, tin whistle, bodrahn and acoustic guitar. I unfortunately couldn't watch the whole show, as I had to get ready for our set. If I thought it was hot at the Paris show, it was nothing like this! The lighting was really intense, with one above my back that felt like it was giving me a sunburn! We played pretty well, although it felt a little ragged to me. The audience was very responsive, and we found out that some of them had come from a long way away to see our show. The show itself really had some nice moments and musical highlights, and it also had some places where we could've done better with a little more rehearsal. Actually we were lucky schedule-wise to even be able to do the show at all, as this night was the final taping of the season, and the first free night after the EJ tour. After the set we had some photos taken with Michael and Gurd, and they took us to a great restaurant where we relaxed and unwound after the somewhat stressful day. I had another early morning, as I had to get up at 4:30 to leave for Straussbourg at 4:45 to catch a flight to Paris at 6:30. Kai again provided the transportation, and I slept on the way (suprise!). I had a layover in Paris, where I caught up on some emails in the lounge, then flew to London to catch the final flight of the day to L.A. The whole trip took 24 hours; four airports, six terminals, two buses, two cars and four planes! After being away from home for a solid 6 weeks, I am really anxious to get home and see my family, friends, sleep in my own bed, sit out in my own garden, etc. Non-travellers may not realize that these everyday events are special treats for someone who is always on the road. This will be my last posting until the next EJ tour leg starts up in Austin, TX on August 7th. I want to thank everyone for stopping by out there in cyber-space, and to thank Craig Smoot for faithfully getting the reports up on site - none of this would even be happening without his hard work. Take care everyone, and check in from time to time, for you never know. I just might get the urge to post the goings on between the tour legs... . Cheers for now, John